Hector and Not-Quite-Paris
by Nimbiose
Summary: AU. Ryuuken first met Shiba Isshin when they were ten. They met the Shinigami woman when they were seventeen. One-shot.


**Hector and Not-Quite-Paris**

 **Rating.** T to be safe  
 **A/N.** i wanted to see Captain Masaki, and Isshin and Ryuuken being childhood rivals turned bffs a la Naruto and Sasuke. or maybe more Neji and Lee. and Ryuuken just likes hating people and suffering idk guys. poor Masaki she tries. that's it that's my excuse. unbeta'd as usual. enjoy.

* * *

Ishida Ryuuken was first introduced to Shiba Isshin of the other surviving Quincy line when they were ten. Their mothers pushed them at each other and told them to be best friends.

After about five minutes in each others company, Isshin was crying, a vase was broken, as were Ryuuken's glasses, and there was paint everywhere.

Needless to say, their mothers were not impressed.

 **-o-**

Ryuuken didn't see the other boy much for the next year and a half, other than at the odd function he was dragged to. At twelve, however, the Shiba's moved to Karakura Town permanently, and suddenly Shiba Isshin was everywhere.

Ryuuken distinctly remembered their first meeting going terribly, so he failed to comprehend what had made the other, boisterous boy so interested in him. Ryuuken made sure to be as dismissive as possible and showcase his dislike, but the other boy was as stubborn as they come (a trait apparently common in the Shiba line, if what his dad complained about the boy's cousins was true) and refused to back down.

They didn't have a cordial conversation until they were thirteen. And it wasn't really a conversation.

Ryuuken caught a group of older boys ganging up on Isshin who, despite his later physique was but a scrawny child at the time, and stepped in. He is still not sure why he felt compelled to do so, all these years later, although he might have had some passing thought along the lines of _that's **my** idiot only I get to make fun of **my** idiot get **away** from him_.

Whatever the case, the two finally bonded over the incident, much to mutual consternation and happiness of their mothers. (Happiness at their sons being friends, and consternation as to how it came about.)

They became thick as thieves. Ryuuken had never been one for friends, a touch too taciturn and withdrawn, knowing the future in store for him, to truly open up to people and make meaningful connections beyond casual acquaintances. So this was an entirely new world for him, and he basked in it quite happily.

He learned that Isshin disliked his future as a Family Head, and disliked his Quincy training just as much. For all the fights Isshin seemed to get into, he insisted he was a pacifist at heart. And Ryuuken could clearly see how his friend grew depressed and distant whenever he talked of his future. Isshin wanted to help people in a way that mattered, he wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor, not learn how to fight angered souls, but pick up the pieces of those left behind. Ryuuken thought this a wholesome goal, perfect for a bleeding soul like Isshin was deep down, and pledged to help his friend see that goal through.

And so the two grew from each other. Ryuuken made sure Isshin studied and did not lose sight of his goals or give in to his bouts of gloominess, and Isshin helped Ryuuken "take that stick outta your ass, man".

Their quiet rebellion had been going well, although Ryuuken knew Isshin was clashing more and more often with his father, as prospective marriages were beginning to get talked of to ensure the purity of the bloodline. Isshin hated everything that had to do with the Quincy, but not marrying for love was something that someone like Isshin, who loved and cared so very deeply, could not even begin to fathom.

It all came to a head on a rainy night when they were seventeen.

Isshin had run out of a dinner which the Ishida's had been invited to after another row with his father, and Ryuuken had been forbidden from running after him.

(Ryuuken would forever regret listening to his parents, since that was the night everything changed. That night, Isshin came back late, drenched in rain and with malfunctioning Quincy abilities.)

 **-o-**

Isshin had been strictly prohibited from leaving the house or using his abilities until they figured out what was wrong.

Predictably, Isshin left the next night. Ryuuken, who knew his friend well, confronted him at the end of the street. But for the first time in their friendship, Isshin ran right past Ryuuken, yelling back at him that he had someone he needed to see and it was important. Ryuuken is unashamed to say he followed his friend and spied.

Isshin eventually made his way to a shop dubiously named 'Urahara's Shop'. Ryuuken waited outside for a few minutes, having a mental debate, and sighed before lifting his arm to open the door. Before he could, the door opened itself, and a tall man in an apron was staring at him.

"Come in, Ishida-san, we've been expecting you," he said. Ryuuken nodded dumbly, and followed the man into the shop.

They came upon a room. Isshin was sitting next to a woman on a futon, talking quite animatedly, as he was wont to do. The woman was holding a cup of tea, and smiling at whatever Isshin was saying, quite clearly amused with his friend. It was a strangely domestic scene, if you ignored the weird man in the stripped hat who was also seated nearby with a calculating gleam in his eye.

Ryuuken, however, did not think the scene was domestic at all. He had already recognized the woman's black garb and white haori as that of a Shinigami, the natural enemies of the Quincy, and thus immediately began launching an attack.

And so Ishida Ryuuken first met Captain Kurosaki Masaki.

 **-o-**

That first meeting quite clearly set the tone of their relationship. As far as Ryuuken was concerned, the woman was a menace, a seductress who had somehow enchanted his closest friend. His closest friend, who wouldn't stop talking about the woman, eagerly waiting for the end of the school day to go visit her. His closest friend who had, it turned out, gotten sick because he had stepped in the way of the woman getting hurt by a Hollow. His closest friend, who refused to listen to reason when Ryuuken outlined why continual exposure to the woman, a Shinigami, a Shinigami _Captain_ it turned out (who the hell had thought she'd make a good Captain had clearly overestimated her abilities if she'd needed the help of seventeen year old human, Ryuuken made sure to point out to his friend) was an absolutely terrible idea. Isshin blissfully ignored Ryuuken and continued to visit.

Of course, then Masaki had to go and be _heroic_ and _save_ not only Ryuuken from a Hollow but also Isshin from the Hollow's corruption. He knew he'd never hear the end of it. Especially when it turned out that Masaki had sacrificed her spiritual powers and was stuck in the World of the Living until further notice, despite all the trouble she would most likely be in if she were found out.

Ryuuken didn't think it was possible for Isshin to be even more besotted, but he somehow _was_.

 **-o-**

(They got married as soon as Isshin finished high school, to the astonishment and dismay of his family, something Ryuuken knew Isshin took great pleasure in.

Ryuuken was the best man. He made sure to include a joke about robbing the cradle.

Masaki blanched, while everyone laughed, before sipping her wine and murmuring something about how she seemed to be cursed with pretty, young boys following her around like besotted puppies and how she would have eventually caved anyway.

Isshin laughed.)

 **-o-**

And Ryuuken eventually accepted the arrangement, although he and Masaki were always somewhat chilly in their interactions, despite Masaki's very sunny personality and how well she eventually got along with his wife. He and Isshin still went to medical school and still accomplished their dreams, albeit in different ways.

They both even had kids, and they made sure introduce them just as early on, hoping to see a friendship like theirs blossom.

It was all very idyllic.

Until it was not.

 **-o-**

When Masaki called him to inform him of Isshin's death, Ryuuken had just finished processing his wife's dead body before his eyes.

To say that he was furious would be a gross understatement.

The next time they saw each other was at Isshin's funeral, but Ryuuken made no attempts to engage the grieving family. His wife's death may have been unavoidable, the Quincy curse, but Masaki could have done something about the Hollow.

(Never mind that Masaki's powers had yet to return, never mind that she hadn't been there, never mind that Isshin could have protected himself.

Ryuuken was angry, and upset, had just lost his wife and best friend in one week and he needed _needed_ someone to blame beyond some boogey man passed down the Quincy fairy tale book.)

 **-o-**

Ryuuken ensured their children no longer interacted. They were now firmly _Masaki's_ , not Isshin's, not anymore, and Ryuuken had no interest in interacting with them anymore than he needed to.

(He ignored calls, messages and in-person visits to his hospital until Masaki finally got the message three years later and stopped trying.

He couldn't ignore his own tears, though.)

 **-o-**

Ryuuken didn't encourage Uryu's training, but he did make sure the boy didn't kill himself. Likewise, while he may have checked out of the life of Shiba children, he still watched over them carefully. When he realized Ichigo tapped into his dormant Shinigami powers, Ryuuken steeled himself for a long few years of battle and worrying over his own son.

(Incidentally, he considers Masaki's hands-off approach to dealing with Ichigo absolute nonsense, and he did not hesitate in informing her of the fact when they both prepared to head into the Fake Karakura Town to battle a mad man (unsurprisingly, a Shinigami).

He studiously does not comment when Masaki throws Uryu's own dislike for his father in his face.

They really had never warmed up to each other.

But for Isshin, and for their children, they're willing to put old grudges aside and fight to the death. Fortunately, due to the fact that they know the worst parts of each other so well, they make a fearsome combination in battle.)

* * *

comments appreciated.


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